Here's a fun thought to ponder from the fear.less blog. Perhaps I like this because I used to run catalog production at L.L.Bean where chaos was a constant force around me...!
Cooler heads tend to prevail because they are not very cool at all - they are aflame with focus, thought and determination.
Fear is disorienting, and panic can scatter brain you whether in a few seconds of natural disaster or a drawn-out week of personal strife. We are so much more than our animal instincts yet that is what we are often reduced to when we are put in a stressful situation.
Those who rise to the occasion in a crisis make the active choice to not freak out. Collecting information and using reason deconstructs fear and helps turn paralyzing terror into a captivating puzzle. Curiosity and problem solving can be an effective substitute for courage.
Breathe deep and gather facts.
Love this post today from Seth Godin's blog.
Why do we work?
Why do we always focus on the first? Why do we advertise jobs or promotions as being generic on items 2 through 8 and differentiated only by #1?
In fact, unless you're a drug kingpin or a Wall Street trader, my guess is that the other factors are at work every time you think about your work.
Several of NEMOA's Fall speakers talked about "must-dos" on your website. Here are a few ideas they presented in more detail at the September conference.
More to come!
Loved this post today from Seth Godin's Blog:
It's laughably easy to find someone to critique a sentence, to find a missing apostrophe or worry about your noun-verb agreement.
Sometimes, you're lucky enough to find someone who can tell you that a paragraph is dull, or out of place.
But finding people to rearrange the chapters, to criticize the very arc of what you're building, to give you substantive feedback on your strategy--that's insanely valuable and rare.
Perhaps one criticism in a hundred is actually a useful and generous contribution in your quest to reorganize things for the better.
[And for those in need of subtitles, this isn't a post about your next novel. It's about your business, your career and your life.]
Four people tell you that there was a typo on the third slide in your presentation. A generous and useful editor (hard to call them a consultant), though, points out that you shouldn't be doing presentations at all, and your time would be better spent meeting in small groups with your best clients.
Vineyard Vines is working hard to create a "hugging environment" for their retail, catalog, and internet customers. They tell personal stories about the models in their product copy and encourage customers to send in their own stories about Vineyard Vines products - along with photos. The founders of Vineyard Vines, brothers Shep and Ian Murray, told us that the two most important people in their organization are the person the customer talks to when they place an order, and the last person in the company to touch a product before it reaches the customer.
Vineyard Vines focuses on the experience the customer has ordering from Vineyard Vines as well as on the product that is ordered. Good idea!